Yahoo Inc. said Wednesday it will bar chat rooms that promote sex between minors and adults and restrict all chat rooms to users 18 and older.

The Internet portal also will prescreen the names of all user-created chat rooms if and when it restores the ability to create them.

The changes come under an agreement with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning.

"These efforts are consistent with and build upon our long-standing commitment to providing a safer and more secure online experience for consumers," Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako said.

In June, while still in discussions with the attorneys general, Yahoo voluntarily removed or barred the use of about 70,000 user-created chat rooms following complaints that some had names suggesting they facilitated illegal conduct, including sex between adults and minors.

Under the agreement, Yahoo will prescreen all user-created chat room names should it restore that feature. Osako did not say when that might happen, but said any decision would be based on making improvements "to enhance the user experience and compliance with our terms of service."

Yahoo also will deny posting of all rooms that encourage sex acts between adults and minors. Should any slip through, Yahoo must purge such chat rooms within 24 hours from when it becomes aware of them.

The company also will eliminate the teen chat category, although it was not clear how the company would prevent children from signing up as adults because credit cards aren't required.

"We need to be vigilant to protect our children," Spitzer said in a prepared statement. "It is imperative that parents, industry, prosecutors and lawmakers all work together to identify and address possible threats."

Bruning said the agreement means "our children are safer online and predators have fewer opportunities to prey on them."

Among the illicit chat rooms removed were those with labels such as "girls 13 & up for much older men," "8-12 yo girls for older men," and "teen girls for older fat men." Many of these were located within the "Schools and Education" and "Teen" chat categories.

An undercover investigator, posing as a 14-year-old while visiting one of those chat rooms, received 35 personal messages of a sexual nature over a single 25-minute period, the attorneys general said.

Spitzer and Bruning said they launched their investigations earlier this year after receiving tips that children had unfettered access to adult chat rooms.

Other measure announced under the agreement:

_Yahoo will make it easier to report any threats to child safety, give priority to such complaints and designate specific employees to do so.

_Yahoo will develop educational materials and feature them on the Yahoo network, promoting the safe use of chat rooms.

_Yahoo will donate $175,000 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's New York affiliates, and provide banner advertising to that organization targeted to teens.

____

Associated Press Writer Ula Ilnytzky contributed to this report.

Blimpie

10-12-2005, 03:28 PM

Okay, so which one of you had October 12th in the office pool for:

"The day Yahoo achieves moral consciousness" ???

OldRightHander

10-12-2005, 03:42 PM

Maybe they should set one up specifically for sex talk with adults and minors, and have all the "minors" on there be undercover adults. Just watch the pervert come on there, arrange a meeting for a little "fun", and just have a cop waiting when he shows up. I always laugh every time I see on tv that some other idiot got nailed when he was talking to a cop he thought was a minor.

traderumor

10-12-2005, 03:58 PM

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/12/D8D6J668B.html

By SAMUEL MAULL
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK

Yahoo Inc. said Wednesday it will bar chat rooms that promote sex between minors and adults and restrict all chat rooms to users 18 and older.

The Internet portal also will prescreen the names of all user-created chat rooms if and when it restores the ability to create them.

The changes come under an agreement with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning.

"These efforts are consistent with and build upon our long-standing commitment to providing a safer and more secure online experience for consumers," Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako said.

In June, while still in discussions with the attorneys general, Yahoo voluntarily removed or barred the use of about 70,000 user-created chat rooms following complaints that some had names suggesting they facilitated illegal conduct, including sex between adults and minors.

Under the agreement, Yahoo will prescreen all user-created chat room names should it restore that feature. Osako did not say when that might happen, but said any decision would be based on making improvements "to enhance the user experience and compliance with our terms of service."

Yahoo also will deny posting of all rooms that encourage sex acts between adults and minors. Should any slip through, Yahoo must purge such chat rooms within 24 hours from when it becomes aware of them.

The company also will eliminate the teen chat category, although it was not clear how the company would prevent children from signing up as adults because credit cards aren't required.

"We need to be vigilant to protect our children," Spitzer said in a prepared statement. "It is imperative that parents, industry, prosecutors and lawmakers all work together to identify and address possible threats."

Bruning said the agreement means "our children are safer online and predators have fewer opportunities to prey on them."

Among the illicit chat rooms removed were those with labels such as "girls 13 & up for much older men," "8-12 yo girls for older men," and "teen girls for older fat men." Many of these were located within the "Schools and Education" and "Teen" chat categories.

An undercover investigator, posing as a 14-year-old while visiting one of those chat rooms, received 35 personal messages of a sexual nature over a single 25-minute period, the attorneys general said.

Spitzer and Bruning said they launched their investigations earlier this year after receiving tips that children had unfettered access to adult chat rooms.

Other measure announced under the agreement:

_Yahoo will make it easier to report any threats to child safety, give priority to such complaints and designate specific employees to do so.

_Yahoo will develop educational materials and feature them on the Yahoo network, promoting the safe use of chat rooms.

_Yahoo will donate $175,000 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's New York affiliates, and provide banner advertising to that organization targeted to teens.

____

Associated Press Writer Ula Ilnytzky contributed to this report.

They had to be taken to court before they removed the types of chatrooms that I bolded? There are some bright people running that company.

Boss-Hog

10-12-2005, 04:04 PM

They had to be taken to court before they removed the types of chatrooms that I bolded? There are some bright people running that company.
My thoughts exactly. They might as well have run a banner on the main chat page that said "All pedophiles welcome here".

Ravenlord

10-12-2005, 05:46 PM

My thoughts exactly. They might as well have run a banner on the main chat page that said "All pedophiles welcome here".
when Baseball-Fever.com got hijacked last year, that was one of the pop-up porno adds.

Cedric

10-12-2005, 07:05 PM

Guys it's not that simple. These were user created rooms that take seconds to create. The problem was that with millions of people being online it was hard to police and enforce the names and content in every room. Now the only difference is they are prescreening names for rooms.

OldRightHander

10-13-2005, 09:59 AM

Guys it's not that simple. These were user created rooms that take seconds to create. The problem was that with millions of people being online it was hard to police and enforce the names and content in every room. Now the only difference is they are prescreening names for rooms.

Yeah, and now the folks who want to start a pedophile room will just come up with some sort of code phrase to use in the title. The next thing we know there will be a chat room for overweight retired refrigerator repairmen and it will be full of perverts looking for kids.

TeamBoone

10-13-2005, 10:58 AM

There's no way they can know the ages of people in chat rooms... it's too easy to lie. All they can do is not advertise that the chat room is age specific.

Does that help cut down on minors in adult chat rooms (and vice versa)? I have no idea but probably not. Does it solve the problem? Absolutely not. Does it generate the perception that Yahoo has solved the problem? Absolutely, though anyone with even a little internet chatroom experience knows differently.... but it sure does look good to the public and legal authorities!